Men in Black: Space Zombies?

Within the controversial field of UFO research there are surely very few things more menacing than the sinister Men in Black. In the highly successful trilogy of MIB movies, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, the dark-suited ones are portrayed as the secret agents of an equally secret government agency that is doing all that it can to keep the lid solidly on the alien presence on Earth.

The Men in Black were not created by, or for, Hollywood, however. Indeed, the MIB movies were based upon a comic-book series of the same name, which, in turn, was inspired by genuine encounters with these macabre characters dating back to the latter part of the 1940s.

The real Men in Black are very different to their movie counterparts, however. They are far less like government agents, and far more like definitive zombies – in terms of both their appearances and their actions. In other words, the image that Smith and Jones portray on-screen is just about as far as you can get from the much darker, gruesome reality of the situation.

Despite what many might think or assume, the real MIB do not chiefly force their way into the homes of witnesses to UFO activity. Most of those that have encountered the MIB note a very curious fact: when the Men in Black make their calls on those who have seen or who investigate UFOs – calls that usually occur late at night, and long after the sun has set – they loudly knock on the door. Then, when the door is duly opened by the owner, who usually reacts with a mixture of fear and astonishment, they patiently wait to be invited in.

Very few people need to be told that this action of not entering a person’s home until specifically invited uneasily parallels the lore surrounding yet another undead monster that feeds upon the living: the grotesque, bloodsucking vampire.

Then there is the matter of the attire of the MIB. They curiously wear the typical black suits and fedora-style hats that were chiefly in vogue in the 1940s and 1950s. But it’s their unsettling physical appearance that matters most of all. They seldom exceed five-feet, five-inches in height, they are very often thin to the point of near-emaciation, and their skin is described as being not just white, but milk-white and very sickly.

As for those suits, they’re not the cool, chic, expensive types worn by the likes of agents J and K in the films. Rather, they are sometimes described as being crumpled, creased and badly-fitting. Interestingly, I have three cases on file – two from the US and one from the UK, and all three from the 1960s – where the MIB projected a distinct and distasteful odor described as being musty and dirt-like, something which provoked one of the witnesses to ponder on the possibility that the MIB had been underground for a significant period of time, possibly even in nothing less than…a grave.

Rather notably, and very closely echoing the data immediately above, the late John Keel – the author of the acclaimed book, The Mothman Prophecies – called this particular breed of MIB “the cadavers.” Keel said, and I quote him word for word:

“These are people who look like they’ve been dead a long time. Their clothes hang on them; their flesh is pasty white and they look like maybe somebody’s dug them up from a cemetery. This cadaverous type has turned up in strange places: England and Sweden. I saw one in the early ‘60’s. They’re very elusive when you approach them, and hurry away. And they do have a habit of turning up in UFO areas and following UFO investigators around.”

We should not, of course, consider the Men in Black to be literal shambling or fast-running zombies of the cinematic variety – in the sense of them trying to violently and physically devour us, after becoming infected with a mysterious virus. But, the fact is that some witnesses to the MIB have developed deep and disturbing suspicions that their mysterious visitors in black were feeding psychically on their bodily energy, leaving them feeling weak, nauseated, dizzy, and not unlike a diabetic in full-on crashing mode.

Are hostile space zombies in our very midst? And, if so, are they bleeding us dry – so to speak – and living and thriving on our life-forces? Don’t bet against it, and particularly so if, late one night, you hear a loud, slow and deliberate knocking on your door.

The outcome of such a visit may not quite be so savagely akin to encountering the reanimated dead of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead; of the 1964 movie, The Last Man on Earth; or of my favorite TV show, The Walking Dead. In a roundabout and highly alternative fashion, however, it might not be that far off either…

Nick Redfern works full time as a writer, lecturer, and journalist. He writes about a wide range of unsolved mysteries, including Bigfoot, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, alien encounters, and government conspiracies. Nick has written 41 books, writes for Mysterious Universe and has appeared on numerous television shows on the The History Channel, National Geographic Channel and SyFy Channel.

Interesting indeed, but what if they are controlled dead people? Like just put a device hidden on them for the one that is controlling the bodies so they can make contact with the people and just throw away the bodies like used batteries? I don’t use the word Zombies here because if they were they shouldn’t be able to have good communication skills.

Mrs. Eccentric

Interesting comment, Mr. Guerrero. Dr. Jacques Vallee explores this idea in his book “Dimensions”, where he quotes old Catholic texts exploring how succubi or incubi could accomplish their (really, ‘the’) deeds – one way the ancient writer suggested was for the spirit of the incubus or succubus to ‘take over’ a dead body.

Tau Allen Greenfield suggests that the MIB are basically what the Grey Aliens can cobble together as a ‘close enough’ human for their temporary purpose of harassing investigators and witnesses. I believe he was thinking more that they were performing some type of shape-shifting, but that of course would require a source of energy. So possibly a combo of the two – dead body temporarily animated via stolen etheric energy – could be the method employed.

As if receiving a visit from a sex demon/ess or the MIB wasn’t bad enough! Thanks Nick for getting me to gross meself out – aw, i needed to skip dinner anyways, steph

Jim

But what about those MIB stories that do not involve a visit to a home? I have heard several stories (one from none other than Dan Aykroyd) where the MIBs merely stand and stare menacingly at a considerable distance, often accompanied by a very old black vehicle. And these stories are just as likely to occur in broad daylight as at night. Awfully strange behavior for a vampire, don’t you think?

alanborky

NIck it’s always seemed to me their main function’s as book marks.

Someone sees somethin’ odd but unless they’ve experienced the Electric Shock or the You Weren’t Meant to See That type effects they forget the whole thing.

Then up pops one or more of these MIB characters who almost seem designed to be mnemonics all to themselves with odd behaviour weird clothes missing body parts etc etc who ensure the person never again forgets the very thing they forgot by ord’rin’ them “That thing you saw you NEVER saw it! That thing you can’t forget you better forget it!”

[By a curious coincidence this’s a technique used by Sufis for instance for inducing altered states in certain types placed under certain testing circumstances encoded in stories about Robin Hood style characters who capture and humiliate some Sharif of Nottingham type to the point of apoplectic rage before telling him “You’ve now been released on the understanding you’re obligated to unswervingly carry out a certain task…” “Whatever it is I swear I’ll die before carrying it out!” “…that from this moment forth you’ll dedicate the rest of your life to hunting me down and exacting your merciless revenge!” Since this’s precisely what the Sharif figure was planning all along his normal mental processes catastrophically lock and break down bringing about the arising of a novel Zen like state of paradigm transcending insight].

There’s also definitely a vampiric energy leeching component to some of these encounters which maybe something along the lines of a gangster’s flunky carrying out his orders but adding on a little something extra for himself.

But I sometimes wonder how much some of the energy draining might be down to transfiguration components operating ie some of these MIB may be innocent or even completely unwitting particpants who in their mind’re merely selling double glazing or insurance say but thanks to unknown parties their appearance and their words become sinisterly reconfigured in the other particpants’ perceptions.

There may even be a certain reciprocality to this because in some accounts the MIBs themselves behave almost like robots whose batteries’ve started runnin’ down.

One of these days we may even eventually get a pair of matching accounts which’ll become something of a Phaistos Disk for the phenonomenon and we’ll finally have on record proof multiple parties have been tricked into seeing each other as MIBs.

Arden Whitenight

Personally I think people are too quick to jump on the supernatural bandwagon with these sorts of things. Every time the MIB show up, there’s something always odd about it. Horseless horse drawn carriages that move for example. So let’s consider. If as MIB seem to be connected to ET’s there’s no reason to assume anything supernatural at all. Could they be dead bodies animated? I suppose. I don’t put anything past the ETs.

It seems to me, people give the ETs too much credit. It’s almost always assumed that they have some kind of sinister or benevolent and mysterious motives. They’re always so alien, and so far advanced than we are. Usually spiritual gods, robots, or any number of things. Personally I say, and I know people hate anthropomorphizing the aliens, that there comes a point where evolution becomes far more technological rather than evolutionary. Aliens if you will, would be in all shapes and sizes.

As such, I don’t put simply playing with the primitives for personal amusement past them. Really half the stuff we run into seems so silly and out there, it’s almost hard to consider otherwise. Either we’re dealing with a bazillion different strange and unusual things, that miraculously occur in random and sporadic ways. Or someone more advanced than us get’s there jollies dicking with us.

Even telepathy could be completely scientific and technologically based. Shoot we’re making strides there already. Do the aliens really speak telepathically through biological means or is it just advanced technology? There’s nothing strange or bizarre out there that cannot be explained with more advanced versions of technologies and concepts we already have.

I think it quite possible these MIB are the invention of someone either alien or otherwise doing an old fashioned past time of trolling all us saps and fools. Right now there’s so many bizarre and unusual stories out there no one can really take things seriously. From the fae, djinn, demons, daemons, oni, ghosts, shadow people, not to mention the more crazy crypto’s it’s nearly impossible to take any of us seriously.

If these beings are so advanced, well they don’t need our resources. There’s a galaxy out there chock full of them. Some food maybe, but no reason to set obvious roots. We’d be dealings with immortal, or damn near immortal beings, and frankly without entertainment immortality would be quite boring. And a primitive but sentient species is ripe for filling that role.

I think that MIB are far too silly to be anything but a joke. One of many. Why? Because why not? It’s a damn simple answer that makes all the odd stuff fit. We have aliens in wigs doing alien abductee help groups to try and convince people not to talk, ect. Shoot it’s genius. Best part about dicking with primitives with ridiculously advanced technology is the more you do it, the more crazy it seems. It self regulates. You can do it with impunity because the more it happens the less believable it is. Only thing that could ruin the fun is disclosure. Once everyone knows for a fact what’s “going on” the game has lost it’s fun. What’s scary is, if their fun is ruined, what is there to stop them from hitting the reset button. Or if they find they desire a whole new game… Shoot all the signs are there that it would be neither the first or
last time they did.

MIB quite possibly equal one of many practical jokes played on humanity since the dawn of time. Not my only theory of course, and it’s quite possible there are multiple groups, or none at all. But it is a favorite theory that amuses me, and makes all this crazyness actually make sense.

Yes this is a weird article for this rant, but well, the sillyness of MIB vampire zombie incubi just brought it out in me.

Jaimie

Aliens playing with humans is the whole premise of the book “Under the Dome.” Just mentioning that, also this is a very interesting take.

Arden Whitenight

I will definitely need to check out that book then.

I_abide

Good idea. Find a corpse, implant a controller interface that controls base motor function and i/o. You wouldn’t even really need all the senses.

Audrey Yarper

That was my mib experience. I just stopped at a gas station and he was head down apparently examining a map, but actually staring menecingly at me. I felt a very evil energy and drove off. He stood up straight and stared at me turning his head to follow me until I was out of sight.